Colby Barrett Meets Ukrainian Sniper Behind 2,069-Meter Shot
Former Marine officer Colby Barrett visits Ukraine to meet Lektor, a sniper who hit a moving Russian soldier at 2,069 meters
By AXY Defense Desk ·
Key points
- Colby Barrett, a former Marine officer, visited Ukraine to meet Lektor, a sniper credited with a 2,069-meter shot in December 2024.
- Lektor fired a single .338 Lapua Magnum round from a Sako TRG M10 at a moving Russian soldier, hitting on the first shot.
- Lektor says drones, thermal cameras and longer walks have made sniping harder, but he still sees snipers as valuable.
- Barrett plans a short documentary about Lektor's work.
Colby Barrett went to scout sniper school because that was where his Marines were headed. More than two decades later, that choice has taken him to a front-line unit in northern Ukraine, where he spent time with the sniper behind one of the longest confirmed shots of the war.
The sniper goes by the call sign Lektor. In December 2024, he hit a moving Russian soldier at 2,069 meters using a single .338 Lapua Magnum round fired from a Sako TRG M10 rifle, according to the account of Barrett’s visit. Lektor is a special forces sniper in the Department of Active Measures, part of Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence. He is still running missions, and he agreed to speak on the record only reluctantly, Barrett said. Barrett’s time with him is now becoming a short documentary.
From Scout Sniper School to Ukraine's Front Line
Barrett was commissioned through Navy ROTC in 2000. From 2000 to 2004, he led infantry and scout sniper Marines. When most of his platoon moved on to sniper school, he went too. He called that a “pretty unusual” move for a Marine officer.
The training he took then has changed since. The Marine Corps has trained its final scout snipers, and under Force Design 2030, its plan to reshape the service, sniper training has moved into reconnaissance and Raider units. For Barrett, that history is part of why the training he received in the early 2000s now feels like something from another era.
After leaving the Marines, Barrett built a business, sold it and took up farming. He was not looking for a war. That changed when a friend asked him to join an aid convoy to Ukraine. Barrett had four children in school and a harvest underway. His first answer was no.
Why a Pastor's Death Pulled Him Back In
That night, Barrett read about pastors killed and churches destroyed by Russian forces. As a Christian, he said he wondered how he had missed it. He made the trip, then kept going back.
His work since then has turned into two series on the war, titled A Faith Under Siege and Faith in War. Barrett has said he is “not a filmmaker,” yet he produced both. One episode inside that work, Safe Ground, follows a Green Beret who removes landmines in Ukraine.
It was on those trips that Barrett first heard about Lektor. The name came up as a sniper with a reputation that others in Ukraine seemed to know well. That reputation is what eventually took Barrett to the front.
The December 2024 Shot That Made Lektor Known
Lektor fired from a standing position in a trench. The target was nearly level with him, and he hit on the first shot. Before that moment, his team had spent two weeks on the zero line, the ground closest to Russian positions, watching for an assault. They had orders not to fire.
The situation changed, and the team was set to move. Lektor asked for one more chance. “So I simply begged the commander: give us a day or two for free hunting,” he said.
He spotted a soldier whose gear set him apart from ordinary infantry. The man was walking along a tree line at a steady pace and at an angle Lektor could work with. As he prepared to fire, his partner called a wind correction in the wrong direction. “I managed to shout: recalculate, something’s wrong,” Lektor said. The team fixed the error in seconds, while the target was still moving.
The shot is now being compared with the longest confirmed .338 Lapua kill on record. Barrett pointed to British Cpl. Craig Harrison’s 2,475-meter shot in Afghanistan in 2009, which came after several sighting rounds. Barrett said shots like that are “really more like competition shooting.”
Lektor is skeptical of the rankings for the same reason. “Two shots maximum: if you didn’t hit, that’s it,” he said. “That’s how you should compare.” In this view, a sniper’s real skill is measured by what happens on the first attempt, under pressure, not by a shot that follows many corrections. That distinction matters for how readers should read long-distance records. A long shot with several sighting rounds tells a different story from a single round fired in the field.
Drones, Heat and a Day in a Dugout
Within half an hour of the shot, drones were overhead. “The only thing that saved us was that the enemy didn’t expect a shot from such a distance,” Lektor said. Russian forces shelled an area about 500 meters out. His team waited a full day in a dugout before slipping out.
The danger has grown since then. Thermal cameras now search for heat signatures, which means a sniper’s equipment can give away his position. “After a shot, a simple suppressor can give you away, because it’s hot, it glows,” Lektor said.
The walk to a firing position has also grown longer. Early in the war, Lektor said, the walk was about a kilometer. He now walks eight. For a sniper, that extra distance means more time exposed, more gear to carry and more chances to be spotted before the first shot.
Are Snipers Still Relevant When Drones Dominate the Sky?
Barrett asked Lektor whether snipers were even relevant anymore. Lektor said the role is “a little outdated,” but not finished. “Snipers, in my opinion, are the neurosurgeons,” he said.
His argument is about endurance. A sniper team can watch a sector almost continuously, he explained. Drones have a different limit. “Drones have to return to recharge, they get shot down,” Lektor said. In his view, a patient observer on the ground can hold a position for hours in a way a drone cannot, even as the drones themselves become a larger part of the fight.
This is AXY’s own reading of the exchange: the debate over whether snipers still matter is really a debate about who can see and survive longest in a battlefield dominated by sensors. Lektor’s answer is that a human team can outlast machines that need to fly back and recharge. The counterargument, which the thermal cameras and drone coverage make obvious, is that the same sensors that find drones can also find a sniper who fires once and stays put.
Lektor also described a kill near Bakhmut. His team killed a Russian sniper there. A neighboring unit then told them he was the fifth sniper killed at that same position. “They have absolutely no regard for the lives of their own men,” Lektor said.
Barrett saw this as part of a wider contrast. He said Ukraine’s regard for its own people is an advantage, along with its speed in adapting to new technology. Russia, he said, treats the war like a meat grinder. “If I just put so much meat into it, that it breaks the grinder, then we’ll win.”
A Father and Son Fighting Side by Side
Lektor’s son enlisted first, and the two have served together for most of the war. “He’s my child, I have to be there,” Lektor said.
The risk has been personal. Once, while Lektor was hospitalized with wounds, his son was fighting with another team in Chasiv Yar. He was the only one of four men in his group to come out unharmed.
On his own team, Lektor keeps one rule. “I [am] the first to go in and the last to come out,” he said. “That’s our unwritten rule.”
What Comes Next for Barrett's Documentary
Barrett’s crew spent a morning on the range with Lektor’s unit to test a practical question. Could American M118 ammunition match the team’s costly hand-loaded rounds? Lektor said there was “practically no difference,” so the unit kept the M118 it already had. For a unit short on resources, that answer is a cost decision as much as a technical one.
Barrett said he was struck by Lektor’s humility. The Ukrainian sniper rejected the praise. “Honestly, I don’t consider myself a super expert,” he told Barrett’s crew in an interview translated from Ukrainian. “This is my job for the duration of the war.”
The short documentary is the next step. Barrett has already made two series on the war, so this project would add a single, focused portrait of one sniper. The story gives viewers something the long-range records cannot: the daily work of a man who waits, watches and tries to make one shot count, and then has to avoid becoming the next target.
Questions and answers
Who is Lektor, the sniper in Ukraine?
Lektor is a special forces sniper from the Department of Active Measures, part of Ukraine's Defence Intelligence. He uses the call sign Lektor and is still running missions.
What was the 2,069-meter shot?
In December 2024, Lektor hit a moving Russian soldier at 2,069 meters with a single .338 Lapua Magnum round fired from a Sako TRG M10. He fired standing in a trench and hit on the first shot.
Who is Colby Barrett?
Colby Barrett was commissioned through Navy ROTC in 2000 and led infantry and scout sniper Marines from 2000 to 2004. After leaving the Marines, he built and sold a business, took up farming and later began visiting Ukraine.
What comes next for Barrett's project on Lektor?
Barrett's time with Lektor is becoming a short documentary. Barrett has already produced two series on the war in Ukraine, A Faith Under Siege and Faith in War.
Topics: Colby Barrett, Lektor, Ukraine, Russia, sniper, Marine Corps, Sako TRG M10, Ukraine Defence Intelligence
Sources: Military Times
https://axynewsglobal.com/article/colby-barrett-meets-ukrainian-sniper-behind-2-069-meter-shot